


A Thousand Ships

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, The Iliad - Homer
Genre: Angst, Beauty - Freeform, F/M, Fame, Greek Mythology - Freeform, women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2014-11-24
Packaged: 2018-02-26 20:26:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2665241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For this prompt at comment-fic on lj: Helen, she's known all across Greece for her looks alone, so she runs away to Troy to be remembered for something more</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Thousand Ships

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for vague references to canon violence and grief.

Since she was a girl, she has heard whispers of her beauty, of her unsurpassed loveliness, the wealth that matters most for a woman.

She has learned to smile graciously at the compliments of men, to look on fondly as men she has never met, men known for courage and strength and wisdom no less, compete for her hand.

When she becomes a wife, she does not become any less of a prize, any less of a work of art in the eyes of her husband or anyone else; she is foolish enough to be surprised by this, to be disappointed.

A seer tells her that as long as she remains in Greece, she will always be known as the greatest beauty and never as anything else, but if she leaves Greece, her name will live forever for some other feat; she remembers this, when the boy Paris bats his eyelashes at her, when he asks her to follow him to Troy.

Later, when she sits with women mourning their husbands and children, when she watches the dead bodies burn, she remembers that seers' predictions can have hidden meanings; in the end, people still talk of her beauty, but she will always be known as the destroyer of worlds.


End file.
